Hazelnut Cookie Sandwiches

• 3/4 cups Plus 3 Tablespoons Toasted And Skinned Hazelnuts, Divided
• 3/4 cups Granulated Sugar, Divided
• 2-1/4 cups All-purpose Flour
• 1/2 teaspoons Kosher Salt
• 2 sticks Unsalted Butter, Softened At Room Temperature
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• 3/4 cups Jam Of Choice (I Used Apricot And Fig)
• 3-1/2 ounces, weight Bittersweet Chocolate, Divided

1. Place 3 tablespoons of nuts in food processer and pulse until finely chopped. Remove and reserve for later. Place remaining 3/4 cup nuts in a food processer with 1 tablespoon of the sugar. Pulse until finely ground. Add remaining sugar, flour and salt. Pulse until combined.
2. Add butter and vanilla and pulse until a dough forms. Remove from food processor, and shape into a two disks. Cover with plastic and refrigerate at least 30 minutes or until form. You can also refrigerate it overnight and allow it to sit out on counter for about 15 minutes before rolling out.
3. On a lightly floured surface, roll dough to 1/8 inch thick. The dough may crack easily, but just push together as needed, and roll out carefully. Punch out rounds using a 2 1/2 inch cutter. Carefully transfer rounds to a parchment lined baking sheet, spacing dough about 1 inch apart. Reroll dough and repeat. Refrigerate dough again if too warm to work with. Place baking sheets with cut-outs in the fridge for at least 10 minutes before baking.
4. Preheat oven to 350u0b0F while dough is chilling. Bake cookies on center rack of oven for 14-16 minutes or until golden brown. Cool for 5 minutes on baking sheet and then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.
5. When cookies cool, spread 1 1/2 teaspoons of jam on half of the cookies and form into sandwiches.
6. Finely chop 3 ounces of chocolate, keeping the remaining 1/2 ounce whole. Fill a small pot with 2 inches of water and warm on stove over medium heat. Place 3 ounces of chopped chocolate in a bowl large enough to sit over pot of water without touching bottom. Place bowl over simmering water and stir frequently until chocolate is about 80% melted. Remove from heat and continue to stir until smooth. Add 1/2 ounce chunk of chocolate to further cool mixture and continue to stir until chocolate is no longer hot to touch. This process will temper the chocolate.
7. Dip half of the cookie sandwiches into chocolate and transfer to parchment-lined baking sheet to set up. After dipping every few cookies, top with reserved chopped hazelnuts before chocolate sets up too much. If your chocolate is not setting up, place in fridge until set. Enjoy.

hazelnuts, sugar, allpurpose, kosher salt, butter, vanilla, ube, weight bittersweet chocolate

Taken from tastykitchen.com/recipes/desserts/hazelnut-cookie-sandwiches/ (may not work)